Former NFL Player Myron Rolle Becomes Neurosurgeon

“I played football, but I didn’t want to be categorized as just a jock.”-Myron Rolle

According to BD.org, Myron Rolle was the #1 football prospect in the entire U.S. Mr. Rolle was a First Team Freshman All-American in 2006 and earned both Third Team All-America and Second Team-ACC honors in 2008. During his final season in Tallahassee is when NFL scouts really took notice. Rolle was ranked by ESPN as the #1 football recruit in the U.S. in 2006 and went on to play for the NFL.

Oddly enough, during his time in the NFL was went he began stem cell research and started an obesity program that would later be adopted by the U.S. Department of Interior. He also raised money for hospitals.

Before he would achieve his dream of being elisting in the NFL draft, Rolle chose to delay his entering the NFL draft for an entire year to study medicine in Oxford, England, where he was recognized as a finalist for the Rhodes scholarship, a prestigious academic award.

Once he returned to the U.S., ROlle was selected in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL draft by the Tennessee Titans. After some changes to the team, Rolle was released right before the start of the 2011 season. He went on to sign with the Steelers as a reserve/future contract for the next offseason and being released again in the 2012 preseason. See his statements below.

“I talked to my family, brothers and pastors asking them what they thought,” he said. “I still received interest from a few teams, and it didn’t have to be over. Then I said to myself, ‘I can knock my head against the wall for 8-9 years or move on to medicine.’ I was leaving the game with no concussions and dexterity in both my hands, where I could be a neurosurgeon one day.”

“The NFL experience was amazing. I had a chance to play alongside some of the best athletes in the world. Only two other people can say that they were a Rhodes Scholar and an NFL player (Pat Haden and Byron White). I look back and say, ‘I got to the league, I got drafted.’”

After all of his hard work and deliberations he went on to pursue his doctorate at Florida State University College of Medicine. Rolle will be graduating this Spring 2017.

“It’s always, ‘What’s next?,’” explains Myron. “I think people align themselves with my way of thinking when they’re talking to me. They try to create new avenues for me to pursue, so if you want to be a doctor and you have interest in human rights and philanthropy and social equality of medicine and disease, why don’t you think about being surgeon general? Then you could have a political impact, with a stronger influence and a bigger platform. I’m that person. ‘What’s next? What’s next?’”